Sex Crime

He is accused of terrorizing a neighborhood for two solid months: pedaling through Newbury Park on a small chrome dirt bike and wearing a black ski mask as he grabbed joggers, sexually assaulted a teenage boy on a high school campus and raped a woman in the high school bathroom.

Occidental College's underreporting of sexual assault allegations was far more extensive than campus officials have acknowledged, according to documents, interviews and a Times review of two confidential federal complaints against the school. In October, the college said it had failed to disclose two dozen sexual assault allegations made by students in 2010 and 2011, a potential violation of federal law. At the time, officials said their revisions represented a complete accounting of the assault cases.

It was just another tragedy in family court. A young crack mother, desperate to conceal her pregnancy, had locked herself in a tenement bathroom and given birth to a three-pound boy. As she pushed, he fell to the floor and broke his skull. The mother abandoned him, like she had two previous babies. All were born addicted to crack. "Can we do anything about this woman?" asks Judge Judith Sheindlin, her voice taut with anger.

A grandfather in Maywood has been convicted of sex crimes involving his grandchildren, nieces and others, authorities said this week. Jose Olivarez Rodriguez, 59, was convicted Friday of 14 felony counts of lewd acts with a child involving six different female children between 5 and 14 years old, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The crimes occurred over a two-year period in Maywood. Rodriguez's relationship to the victims included grandfather, uncle and the babysitter's husband, the Sheriff's Department said.

While the Grand Jury criticizes county government and its policy making Board of Supervisors it should look in the mirror for it too is failing in its function to keep law and order. There is a blatant lack of prosecution by the district attorney's office of thousands of felony crimes of unlawful intercourse with minors and sexual child abuse that can spread AIDS and cause many other problems. In Orange County, we have more than 4,000 abortions and 3,000 births to minors each year without prosecution.

Re "The decline of rape," Current, Feb. 18 Mike Males presents an impressive array of statistics to support his thesis that sexual violence has declined over the last several decades. Unfortunately, he misses the most important reason for this decline: the progressive acceptance, at a progressively younger age, of consensual sex by the female population. Although legally even consensual sex is statutory rape below a certain age, prosecution is only possible if a complaint is made.

Maybe, in the end, we will thank Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinksi, head of the Air Force's Sexual Assault Prevention Unit, who was arrested on suspicion of sexual battery early Sunday after a woman reported he drunkenly approached her in a parking lot and grabbed her breasts and buttocks. When it comes to dealing with the rape and assault epidemic that plagues our armed forces, Krusinksi's tawdry story puts the finest point on all you need to know about the military's problem with saying one thing and doing another.

A San Jose sex crimes detective pleaded guilty to committing a sex crime and will serve at least six months in jail, prosecutors said Friday. Tony Fregger, 34, who has worked as a San Jose police officer since 2005, turned himself in last July after his computer was seized by authorities. The investigation into Fregger showed he had solicited and received explicit photos on Facebook from a girl he knew was a minor, according to the San Jose Mercury News . "Certainly as a police officer in the sex crimes unit, he knew what he was doing was illegal," said Santa Clara County prosecutor David Ezgar.

A 43-year-old mother from Irvine was found guilty this week of a host of sex crimes involving two teenage boys. Nicole Ethel McMillen was convicted on three felony counts of oral copulation of a minor under 16 and four felony counts of lewd acts on a child. The victims were 14 and 16 years old, according to the Orange County district attorney's office. Evidence presented at trial showed McMillen had an ongoing sexual relationship with the 16-year-old boy for more than a year in 2005 and 2006, the district attorney's office said.

With classes finished for the day at Vista Murrieta High School, members of the highly ranked Broncos football team counted their jumping jacks and broke off into drills, the sun gleaming off their helmets. The cross-country team sprinted by, and other students climbed into cars and buses, some lugging musical instruments. Days after two 17-year-old football players were charged with felony sex crimes involving underage victims - some younger than 14 - parents and students at the Murrieta campus were swift to condemn such behavior as well as defend the school.

Two Vista Murrieta High School football players are expected to be arraigned Tuesday on sex crime charges involving six underage girls. Both players are 17 and have been removed from the team, Coach Coley Candaele said. One player is charged with two counts of forcible rape involving two victims, two counts of lewd acts with a girl under 14 and three counts of imprisonment involving three additional victims, according to John Hall, a spokesman for the Riverside County district attorney's office.

Two Vista Murrieta High School football players have been charged with sex crimes involving six victims, authorities said Monday. Both players are 17 and are charged with crimes including forcible rape, lewd acts and dissuading an individual from reporting a crime, according to the Riverside County district attorney's office. Vista Murrieta is a top-ranked team and is 2-0 so far this season. For additional details, see the Varsity Times Insider blog. ALSO: As Rim fire rages, more than 400 square miles have burned Well spewing methane, water in Hawthorne is partially plugged Suspects may have rammed car before stabbing man in Santa Clarita eric.sondheimer@latimes.com

More jail inmates in Los Angeles County are being set free after serving only a fraction of their sentences, a Times investigation has found. The releases are benefiting even inmates sentenced to jail for violence and sex crimes, with those offenders released after serving as little as 40% of the time they were meant to spend behind bars, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department records obtained by The Times under the California...

A former Redlands high school teacher convicted of having sex with her students could next face a civil suit, an attorney for one of her victims said. Laura Elizabeth Whitehurst, 28, pleaded guilty to sex acts with three boys and was sentenced to one year in jail this week. She gave birth to a child by one of the boys this summer. With the plea deal, she admitted guilt to six counts -- four for unlawful sexual intercourse and two for oral copulation of a person under 18. "This is a slap in the face to the victims," said attorney Heather Cullen, whose law firm represents the family of the boy who fathered a child with Whitehurst.

July 31, 2013 | By Andrew Blankstein, This post has been corrected. See notes below for details.

A former Redlands high school teacher whose child was fathered by a teenage student will spend a year in jail after pleading guilty Wednesday in a San Bernardino County courtroom to half a dozen sex crimes. Laura Elizabeth Whitehurst, 28, had faced 41 felony counts of sex crimes with three boys she taught. With the plea deal, she admitted guilt to six counts -- four for un lawful sexual intercourse and two for oral copulation of a person under 18. In addition to jail, Whitehurst was placed on five years' probation, must undergo counseling and register for life as a sex offender.